Chapter X.

What is seemly is often found in the sacred writings
long before it appears in the books of the philosophers.
Pythagoras borrowed the law of his silence from David.
David’s rule, however, is the best, for our first duty is to have
due measure in speaking.

30. We are
instructed and taught that “what is seemly”6565 Cic. de Off.
I. 27. is put in our Scriptures in the first
place. (In Greek it is called πρέπον.) For we
read: “A Hymn beseems Thee, O God, in Sion.” In
Greek this is: Σοί
πρέπει ὕμνος
ὁ θεὸς ἐν
Σιών.6666Ps. lxv. [lxiv.]
1.
And the Apostle says: “Speak the things which become sound
doctrine.”6767Tit. ii. 1. And
elsewhere: “For it beseemed Him through Whom are all things
and for Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the Captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings.”6868Heb. ii. 10.

31. Was Panætius or Aristotle, who also wrote
on duty, earlier than David? Why, Pythagoras himself, who lived
before the time of Socrates, followed the prophet David’s steps
and gave his disciples a law of silence. He went so far as to
restrain his disciples from the use of speech for five years.
David, on the other hand, gave his law, not with a view to impair the
gift of nature, but to teach us to take heed to the words we
utter. Pythagoras again made his rule, that he might teach men to
speak by not speaking. But David made his, so that by speaking we
might learn the more how to speak. How can there be instruction
without exercise, or advance without practice?

32. A man wishing to undergo a warlike training
daily exercises himself with his weapons. As though ready for
action he rehearses his part in the fight and stands forth just as if
the enemy were in position before him. Or, with a view to
acquiring skill and strength in throwing the javelin, he either puts
his own arms to the proof, or avoids the blows of his foes, and escapes
them by his watchful attention. The man that desires to navigate
a ship on the sea, or to row, tries first on a river. They who
wish to acquire an agreeable style of singing and a beautiful voice
begin by bringing out their voice gradually by singing. And they
who seek to win the crown of victory by strength of body and in a
regular wrestling match, harden their limbs by daily practice in the
wrestling school, foster their endurance, and accustom themselves to
hard work.

33. Nature herself teaches us this in the case of
infants. For they first exercise themselves in the sounds of
speech and so learn to speak. Thus these sounds of speech are a
kind of practice, and a school for the voice. Let those then who
want to learn to take heed in speaking not refuse what is according to
nature, but let them use all watchful care; just as those who are on a
watch-tower keep on the alert by watching, and not by going to
sleep. For everything is made more perfect and strong by
exercises proper and suitable to itself.

34. David, therefore, was not always silent,
but only for a time; not perpetually nor to all did he refuse to speak;
but he used not to answer the enemy that provoked him, the sinner that
exasperated him. As he says elsewhere: “As though he
were deaf he heard not them that speak vanity and imagine deceit:
and as though he were dumb he opened not his mouth to
them.”6969Ps. xxxviii.
[xxxvii.] 13. Again, in
another place, it is said: “Answer
7not a fool according to his folly, lest
thou also be like to him.”7070Prov. xxvi. 4.

35. The first duty then is to have due measure in
our speech. In this way a sacrifice of praise is offered up to
God; thus a godly fear is shown when the sacred Scriptures are read;
thus parents are honoured. I know well that many speak because
they know not how to keep silence. But it is not often any one is
silent when speaking does not profit him. A wise man, intending
to speak, first carefully considers what he is to say, and to whom he
is to say it; also where and at what time. There is therefore
such a thing as due measure in keeping silence and also in speaking;
there is also such a thing as a due measure in what we do. It is
a glorious thing to maintain the right standard of duty.